Ep 2. Birthday Boy

Birthday Boy is the second episode of the first season of the crime drama television series Without a Trace. The episode was originally aired on September 30th, 2002. The show follows the Missing Persons Squad of the New York City FBI, and this episode sees the team racing against time to find a missing child who vanished in the midst of his birthday party.

The episode starts with the birthday party of a 7-year-old boy named Jeremy that is taking place in a park. Jeremy's mother, Emily, is watching over the children when she realizes that her son has gone missing. Emily's husband, Greg, and the rest of the parents help her search for Jeremy. However, they can't find him, and the episode kicks off with Emily calling the FBI to report her son as missing.

Without wasting any time, the team led by Jack Malone quickly swings into action to find the missing boy. As the team starts investigating, they identify two possible suspects of the kidnapping - a convicted sex offender and a mentally unstable man who has been seen around the park.

As the team digs deeper, they discover that Jeremy's parents, Emily and Greg, are going through a divorce, and Greg hasn't been present for his son's life much because of his job. Meanwhile, Emily has been trying to keep up with her freelance writing work and take care of Jeremy all by herself.

The team gets a lead when they discover that a van that parked near the park where Jeremy was last seen has a connection to an apartment building in the city. The team focuses on the building and starts knocking on doors, but they can't find anything related to Jeremy.

As the search for the missing boy intensifies, Jack reaches out to Emily's ex-husband, Greg, to discuss his whereabouts at the time when Jeremy went missing. Greg tells Jack that he was at a business meeting out of town. While his initial alibi seems to check out, the team later discovers a piece of vital evidence that could pin Greg as the kidnapper.

Meanwhile, Vivian Johnson, one of the FBI agents, continues to search the building while the rest of the team is back at the office, looking at all the possible clues they've gathered so far. Soon, Vivian stumbles upon a piece of evidence that could break the case wide open.

The episode reaches a climax when the team races against time to save Jeremy from the kidnapper's grasp. Will they be able to find him before it's too late? Has Greg got any sinister motive behind the kidnapping? These are some of the questions that will keep you hooked until the end of the episode.

Overall, Birthday Boy is a thrilling and emotionally charged episode that leaves you on the edge of your seats. The performances of the cast, including Anthony LaPaglia, Poppy Montgomery, and Eric Close, are stellar, and the storyline addresses pertinent issues like single parenting and child abduction with sensitivity. If you're a fan of crime dramas, Without A Trace, and this episode, Birthday Boy, won't disappoint you.